Masters Worlds review

[Alan H]

First up....congratulations to LARRY SISSECK, 2012, Masters 60-65 World Champion!

I put that in because Larry is a good friend whom I've thrown with for many years and o1d dude knows him well.

Me.... 11th of 13 in an **un-believably* talented class. I am blown away by the depth of my class.

Highlights....hanging with the lads.. Seriously. Just being on the field with my main man, Bill Gray was a joy. Being on the field with Myles Wetzel...*finally* and seeing the big mans non-stop show was a blast. All down the field, great guys. It was great to see Mike Nease break the world record in weight over bar, going 19' 4". Mike Baab won it, like we all figured he would. It's an honor to be there and I had a complete blast.

AND....got to meet Matt Newsome, as well! NICE. Matt is a great guy, and confession time...I've never been a fan of the Carolina tartan, but seeing it on Matt in person, and a couple of the other lads in the Tartan Museum tent has convinced me that it's a looker.

Oh, BTW.... South Carolina is a beautiful state and Furman University is just G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.!

I also threw today in the B class, and came 7th of 14. I managed a second in both heavy hammer and caber, which is pretty cool. I hit the bar twice @ 11 feet and cleared 10, easy with the 56 pound weight in WOB, and while it's been a long time since I've tried that, it's significantly higher than I've ever gone before.

A serious highlight of the trip was having Adriane Wilson watch my open stone and give me a HUGE, pivotal training tip. Just doing that one thing bumped my glide throw up a foot and a half, so I am looking forward to putting it into practice soon.

Now.....the numbers. Upshot...no melt-downs, but honest truth, a bit disappointing.

Braemar Stone. You never know if the stone is 22, 23, 24 pounds, so this is kind of subjective. Several of the throws FELT good. I got under the stone and had plenty of spring. However, both days the tape said 24-25. It SHOULD say high 26's to high 27's. So that two and a half to three feet difference is kind of disappointing.

Open Stone. 30' 6.5", standing, on Saturday. meh. Not a meltdown, but not at all what I want. Sunday...29 feet. I really should be throwing 32's. But I know this. At least I got that big tip from ADriane that combined with what I learned from Rusty last weekend, will probably help my OS numbers, soon.

Heavy Hammer... Heavy hammer rocked. I'm generally just going gangbusters on heavy hammer this season. 69 '9" is my second biggest throw ever. Sundays 64 was OK, nothing special. Anyway, I'm very happy with this. BTW, we started with this event on Saturday.

Light Hammer. Didn't do it on Sunday, Saturday 82' 4.5 but the other two throws were 78-79. I should be well over 85 by now, and I've been throwing high 80's in practice. 82+ is by no means a meltdown, but I am a little bit disappointed. No, be honest....I'm quite disappointed.

WOB ... got 13 again on Saturday, but it was ugly- over a non-knockoff bar. 14 feet might as well be on Mars, still. I didn't expect to nail 14, but crawling over 13 like that is a drag. Then again, I cleared 10 with the 56 pounder on Sunday, and rang the bell at 11 feet, and that's not too bad.

Sheaf. ... quite the kerfluffle over my West Coast fork. The local judges did NOT like it. I've been on a roll with sheaf recently so going out at 22 was a serious drag. I really thought I'd get 24.

caber .... Oh. My. OOooohhhhhh, MY. The freaking stick was NINETEEN feet long and 91 pounds. It was whippy cedar, you could feel it wobble in your hands. It's the same stick that they gave the local A class boys on Sunday. I've never even considered picking up a 19 foot long caber. I picked it, controlled it, took it down the field and got three pulls, but I have not a clue how to time the pull on a stick that long and they were all just ridiculously late. What'cha' gonna do? On Sunday I was all over the 16 foot 75 pound caber, which is what I'm used to pulling....banged that over 3x like a Boss..

Weight throws

These are a major disappointment. I have been working SO hard on this.

Light weight for distance - 28 lbs ... We got to the weights incredibly late on Saturday. They were the LAST events of the day. I'm used to them being in the morning. The heat index on the field was about 105 degrees. These Southern boys throw a very different weight from what I'm used to.
All of that goes to explain what happened, but **Truth** that's just excuses. I've been throwing 50+ foot bombs in practice. To see my best offerings at 43 and 44 feet just *hurts*. My best throw on Saturday FELT good. I'd have sworn that it was 48+ and probably better but I just had no gas in the tank any more, and I got 43' 0.5". Ouch.

Heavy Weight for Distance This is the closest thing to a total meltdown. I just could NOT settle in with these weights. The ring handles are fine, but the chain binds up badly as you crank the things around. I fouled two throws.... and my best was an **AWFUL** 26' 3". That's my worst throw in two seasons...since I triple-fouled at Costa Mesa last year. That hurts.

On Sunday (today) we threw the 56 for distance, and between the weight and those chains that kink, I could do nothing with it. I fouled one throw - never really got it going, totally hosed up the second one, but at least put it out there for a disgraceful 17' 9"... and then did even worse on the last one. This hurts. I haven't been practicing the 56 for a *very* LONG TIME. If I'm going to go to Scotland next summer though, I need to put in the time.

So all in all....a mixed review. Some good, some bad, a lot of "OK but not great" and a real heartbreaker in the weight throws.

BTW, there will be pics, I believe....

[MacMillans son]

Congratulations for being on the field and giving it your all Alan! I'm sure the east coast crowd appreciated your efforts as much as we do here at home (regardless of how you rated them). Good on ya!

[GoodGirlGonePlaid]

Sounds like a great time was had, and 11th in the world is pretty freakin awesome!
You were missed in Costa Mesa! It was rather quiet and dull without you and Cha.
Our weather was gorgeous, low 70's, blue sky... Didn't even break a sweat.
Except for 3 awesome picks and controlling the caber with 3 ok pulls, I threw very poorly. I had trouble in the same events as you. Fouled 2 LWFD, one went flipping far too! Boooo! Sheaf- don't ask. WOB, well you know. Open stone was meh. Hammers... Really?! It was our first event also. The first event never. Goes well for me. Why I think we should always start with WOB or Braemar.
Anywho, I'm so glad to hear you had a GREAT time!!!

[o1d_dude]

A small correction here: Congrats to Larry Sisseck, Masters 2012 60-64 World Champion.

Congrats to you for going to the Worlds. You went, you threw, but you didn't do as well as you would have liked. Now you're going to get ready for next year in Albuquerque.

Based on your numbers thrown vs your practice numbers, I'd say you threw "tight" on Saturday. This is when you're rehearsing your throw while actually in the trig trying to throw. At times like this, you just have to let go of all your checklists, mantras, and assorted baggage and just get out of the way of the throw. The tranquil mind. Let yourself throw the way you've practiced and leave nothing on the field.

The fact that you threw again on Sunday is the clue here. If you threw all out on Saturday, you probably would have had nothing left on Sunday.

At the Worlds level, ALL the competitors are good and you have to be on top of your game to do well. I never beat Kent Durso in a single event all the times we threw together but I always threw PRs with him. Some guys just come from the deep end of the gene pool.

When all is said and done, you had the best seat in the house to see some terrific throws and world records going into the books. And you rubbed shoulders with some of the legends. Doesn't get much better than that.

Vern Alexander told me once "Records come and go but victory is FOREVER." Let that be your goal.

[English Bloke]

Nice one Alan. Looking forward to the pictures when you get a chance.

[Alan H]

Good point, o1d due....Masters 60-64.

I was damn tired on Saturday night after the MWC. In fact, honestly, I've never been as spent after a Games as I was that night. I was originally going to sleep in and just go hang out and watch, but my sleep schedule was all wonky, and I woke up at 7:15 anyway. I figured, if Steve Elliot can do two Game days in a row, then I can do it. So I gave it a shot. It started out pretty slow, there wasn't much get-up-and-go...stones weren't so great, but got better during the day.

ANY-way, in addition to what Adriane told me, I also learned one more very important thing. This is now the second Games where I've felt my left foot lose traction with the ground in Heavy Hammer. It happened on Sunday. In other words, I'm now strong enough/good enough to need blades. Time to transition.

[cessna152towser]

Nice one Alan, looking forward to seeing your pics.

[Alan H]

6-7 pictures, as well as a sheaf video, are up in the pics forum, in Matt's "Greenville Highland Games" thread.

[Detroitpete]

Alan,

I appreciate your drive to improve, but also remember just how lucky we are to do this sport. A beautiful day...a beautiful place and you got to hitch up the kilt and throw heavy things for fun AT THE WORLD MASTERS! Awesome job, lad! I missed you guys.

[Kinetikat]

STRONG ENOUGH TO NEED HAMMER BLADES! Wooo! Excellent going!